Balandar

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday August 23, @01:06PM from the so-much-gamer-funk dept. Every year, the pilgrimage to Gen Con brings tabletop roleplayers, wargamers, boardgame enthusiasts, and LARPers together for four days of unbridled nerdery. Besides participating in games, some of which have been around for decades, there are always new releases and previews to tantalize the gaming public. Gen Con is the tabletop industry's version of E3, where the year ahead is laid out by the big names. Read on for a taste of what your Friendly Local Gaming Store will have to offer in the near future. The biggest kid on the block in the tabletop market is Wizards of the Coast. Publisher of Dungeons and Dragons, D20 Modern, Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and the Avalon Hill stable of games, WoTC is a major sponsor of Gen Con and regularly dominates the Exhibition Hall. This year the company had a two faceted pavilion, each side themed to their major releases this year. One side was a decaying and blasphemous Cathedral, with images of demons and spirits splayed across the facade. The imposing edifice was advertising the release of Hecatomb, a somewhat unique collectable card game. Instead of the traditional cards, Hecatomb is played with semi-transparent pentagonal playing pieces. As a player, you take on the role of a Summoner of foul creatures large and small. Spirits from your hand can be played into your manapool and later tapped to fuel the summoning of other creatures. The transparent nature of the cards allows for the different beasts to be amalgamated into horrible creatures they refer to as Abominations by stacking cards atop each other. Rules text shows through the highest card to allow Abominations to combine the strength (and sometimes powers) of numerous smaller critters into a ghastly whole. The play style was very reminiscent of Magic: The Gathering, but the presentation and art gave the game a very mature tone. The quick Demo I had the chance to take in wasn't enough to make me run off and buy it, but I look forward to taking a closer look in the future. The other side of WoTC's coin was a more traditional church, albeit one broken and battered by the ravages of war. The release of the Axis and Allies miniatures game was the rationale for the theming, and the addition of several vintage military issue vehicles (an APC, a jeep, etc) on the show floor added to the atmosphere. The minis game itself received a lot of attention, as the "random pack of pre-painted miniatures" concept that Wizards has used with great success in their D&D and Star Wars lines reached a wider audience. The Axis and Allies line will invite WWII aficionados to recreate battles of the war, and engage in their own skirmishes, using a simple set of battle tactics and their miniatures. The D&D and Star Wars lines have tournament support and an avid collector base, and I imagine this series will garner similar attention. Wizards also publishes tabletop roleplaying books, though sometimes pavilion visitors seem not to notice. The two campaign settings that the company supports most heavily right now are Ed Greenwood's venerable Forgotten Realms, and the recently minted Keith Baker world known as Eberron. Products for both campaign settings and the core Dungeons and Dragons line seem to be moving beyond some of the tried and true formulae they've used before. The core line, for example, will see the release of Heroes of Horror, a follow-up to Heroes of Battle that can be used to overlay a traditional D&D game with a horror tone. Races of the Dragon will explore dragons, and half-dragons, and kobolds but it will also contain a transformative race. IE, a race a character can become during the course of play. They're not completely breaking the mold, though, with a new Tome of Magic set to introduce some new styles of spellslinging to the core books. The Realms will have a title called Powers of Fearun, which will discuss the impact a character can have on the Realms as a whole, given sufficient power. A new adventure entitled Sons of Gruumsh will welcome back published modules to the FR setting, and a semi-monthly column by Ed Greenwood in Dragon magazine will explore the Cities of the Realms. Companions of Valor will explore what it means to be a hero in the Realms, and grew out of the Forgotten Realms seminar from Gen Con 2004. The book will be a series of tools for PCs, ways for them to make their own name as heroes. The next Mini set, Underdark, will feature several prominent Realms personalities and monsters. Eberron, meanwhile, moves on from the basics as the company continues to widen the world's scope. A Player's Guide to Eberron will act as a sort of gazeteer, with two page spreads on each topic, personality, or location. The guide aims to be a completely player-friendly tome that you can use to get to know the lay of the land. Magic of Eberron will delve more deeply into some of the unique arcana in the setting. Elemental bindings, Artificers, and warforged all get a look. Another adventure will be in the offing; separate from the previous three-book adventure set but with ties to it, entitled The Voyage of the Golden Dragon. Voyage will introduce a ship of war that never got the chance to be used in battle. The Golden Dragon now acts as a vessel of peace, traveling the five nation and usable as a kind of floating base of operations by PCs. Love them or not, WoTC is a publisher of some great games. A new version of RoboRally!, and the title Monsters Menace America also made their debut this month. They're likely to continue to be one of the top names in the tabletop industry for many years to come. Wizards of the Coast wasn't the only publisher at Gen Con this year, of course. FanPro, in association with Wizkids, put out the latest version of the magic/cyberpunk RPG Shadowrun. Now in its Fourth Edition, the setting has received its most serious overhaul to date. The basic mechanic has been reworked, major advancements have been made to the state of in-game technology, and the political boundaries of the North American Nations have been redrawn. Though the plot elements are compelling, the new simplicity of the core game mechanic will be the most widely felt change. Previous editions of Shadowrun required a player or GM to roll a number of six-sided dice equal to a skill or attribute, with the intent of hitting a target number determined by the situation. The lowest a target number could get was 2, but the sky was the limit for difficulty. The fluidity of combat often meant there would be high target numbers, which required a participant to roll a six on a die, so that the six could be rerolled and a higher number achieved. Fourth Edition does away with this clumsiness, with all dice rolled in the game now seeking either a five or a six to be determined a hit. All rolls are made with a number of dice equal to the requisite attribute + skill combination. Penalties result in fewer dices being rolled at the outset, and the GM is encouraged to assess penalties on the fly rather than being confined by arcane tables. The simplicity of this mechanic allows for the GM to gain a better grip on the fast and loose nature of combat in the real world, the astral plane, and the virtual reality of the Matrix. Speaking of the Matrix, the most important plot change is probably the advent of a wireless Matrix. The old "decks" have been removed in favour of an Artificial Reality overlay to normal vision. This requires computer criminals to come on-site with the rest of the Shadowrun team in order to participate, and opens up the role of the hacker in the game to a previously unknown degree. I've been playing Shadowrun for 15 years now, and I'm very excited about the changes this latest edition have brought around. Here's hoping FanPro follows up the new edition with some material that allows us to better come to grips with the setting changes. Recent years at Gen Con have seen video game publishers arriving to show off their work as well. NCSoft has been a presence at the con since the release of City of Heroes (partially because of Jack Emmert's background in the tabletop industry). This year all they really had to show was the City of Villains character creator, and not even all of it. All the action was over at the booths occupied by Blizzard and Atari. Dungeons and Dragons Online is still something of an enigma. While the closed Beta recently got underway, there are still too few firsthand experiences out there to really get a sense of what the game as a whole will be like. I had a chance this past weekend to get a feel for what the dungeon-crawling experience will be like, though, and I was very surprised by what I saw. Given the nature of online games, I've come to expect a level of abstraction in the mechanics. DDO was incredibly hands on, and in many ways felt like a single-player mission that you really wanted some help on. Talking to a villager netted my cleric a quest, a trip into the Maw of Xoriat. Immediately I saw that they are aiming for a unique feel, as each mission had a time limit associated with it. If you didn't complete the mission in time, you would be unceremoniously summoned back to the village. Entering the crypt, there were several sarcophagi that could be interacted with. Swinging his heavy mace, my cleric smashed through the rock exteriors to get at the sweet loot within. Looking down a corridor, I was presented with a series of traps. A pair of swinging blades blocked my pack on either side of the hallway. Good timing was required to make it past without taking damage. Further down the hall was a series of large blades which snapped up from the floor in quick succession. When one set of blades was up, another was down, allowing the observant player to pick a path through the blades. If I'd had a rogue in my party, she could have disarmed the traps and allowed us to pass without having to deal with them. Moving through the dungeon, I encountered various beasts and undead. Combat was realtime, with a clickyness that satisfied. A notification in the corner allowed you to follow along with the dice rolls and Challenge Rating of the creature you faced, if you were so inclined. Besides satisfying thwacks with my mace, I was able to counter the creatures by turning undead and flame striking the creatures with magic. One flame strike near a locked doorway revealed that the doors are as destructible as the crypts. A team without a rogue can bash through an impediment, assuming they have a strong enough fighter or a well equipped spellcaster. The whole experience had interesting little touches, such as a perverted altar that was cleansed by a use of the turn undead class ability. In a nod to gamers of all stripes, one room had me utilizing a simple version of the 'Pipes' game to allow magical energy to flow across the room. The energy stemmed from a source in the floor, and tiles around the room had grooves in them which allowed the mana to flow. By right clicking on the tiles, I could rotate them such that they formed pathways. While my time with DDO was relatively short, I found the entire experience much more interesting than I'd originally thought it would be. The near constant attention at their booth led me to believe others had the same impression. Blizzard also had no trouble keeping their booth full, with machines allowing play of World of Warcraft (and several 60th level characters to tool around in) and StarCraft: Ghost. I'd yet to have the opportunity to try out Ghost, so I gave the tactical shooter a try, on the XBox. My reactions were, unfortunately, somewhat mixed. While the overall Starcraftyness of the experience was very enjoyable, the actual gameplay left something to be desired. Squishy controls, simple tactics, and a lack of polish on the game made it hard for me to fully understand what the title will look like when it is released. In the demo level I played, Nova stalked her way through a Terran base already overrun by Zerg. The Zerglings where just as fast and ferocious as you'd hope, and actually walking through a Zerg structure was stomach clenching. The scenery was nice, but the gameplay needed help. I'm sure that when the title is released (whenever that will be) there will be little to complain about, but the rough demo I saw this past weekend didn't have enough "there" there to give me an accurate impression. Anyone familiar with tabletop roleplaying has likely heard of Vampire: The Masquerade and White Wolf. Two years ago at Gen Con they re-launched the World of Darkness and rebooted all of their campaign settings. This year's con saw the relaunch of the magic-bound title Mage. This time appended with the subtitle "The Awakening", the new version of the game takes a serious textual shift away from the old version of the game. While the original Mage was a grand tapestry of gifted individuals making and unmaking the very fabric of reality, the new Mage is a much more accessible storyline. There are now distinct spells used by Mage characters, a backstory involving the continent of Atlantis, mana points as a game mechanic, and an elimination of the inherent conflict between magic and technology. I'm just going to come out and say that, while I like the new World of Darkness game mechanic and think White Wolf is doing interesting things with their old brands, this particular relaunch is a kick in the face to old Mage players. Mage was a fundamentally different game from every other title in their library, and a change a pace from most titles on the market. By reorienting it with the "vision" of the other World of Darkness lines they've essentially gutted everything that was special about the setting. I'm not really a big fan of this decision. Two board games that have gained a lot of attention recently, and with good reason, were shown off at the convention this year. Shadows Over Camelot and Arkham Horror are examples of some of the new ideas that are entering the boardgame market. Five years ago you had to buy a German title in order to get a great adult boardgame experience, but today Days of Wonder allows the same enjoyment factor with their Arthurian style epic. In Shadows Over Camelot, you take on the role of Knight of the Round, fighting dark knights, dragons, questing for the grail, and holding off the barbarian hordes. The game is cooperative but doesn't allow totally free communication between players, so the title encourages creative collaboration on the numerous quests that knights can go on. For example, in order to obtain Excalibur a knight or knights must travel to the Lady of the Lake's lake and each round expend a card in order to make the sword draw closer to the shore. In the meantime, as each player goes a "bad things" card is pulled. One of these types of bad things makes the sword float away from the shore. While one player can often keep the sword from floating out of sight, in order to actually obtain the relic several knights must collaborate to assure victory. The game also incorporates subterfuge, by allowing for the possibility of a traitor in your midst. The traitor will actively work against the other players, seeking to destroy Camelot for his own victory. A complex title with easy to understand rules, Shadows Over Camelot is a great way to makes sure you stay friendly with your friends. Indeed, if you are looking for cooperative games this is a good year to do it. Arkham Horror, from Fantasy Flight Games, also allows players to band together against a common foe. In this case, players take on the roles of investigators into the occult. There are many characters to choose from, and each has a special quirk. As your character, you and the other players work together to ensure that the arrival of a Great Old One does not occur. Based loosely on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the roleplaying title Call of Cthulu, Arkham horror pits you against things from beyond our ken as they enter our world through mystical gates. In order to ensure the survival of the town of Arkham, MA, investigators must slay the creatures as they exit the gates. Once the path is clear they must enter the mystic realms, where they have otherworldly encounters of the horrifying and fantastic. If they are successful there, they can return to the village and seal off the gate. Changing conditions in the village constantly keep the gameplay from getting stale, and after only a short time there will be monsters a-plenty to challenge even the largest group of investigators. This Call of Cthulu in-a-box is a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and another way to make sure you do more than just frag your friends on the weekends. There are literally hundreds of new products shown at every Gen Con, and I couldn't hope to explore them all. Dice Boxes, card games (including a World of Warcraft CCG), roleplaying games, boardgames, and virtual reality games were all shown off to the general public for the first time this past weekend. Every year is a different experience, and I've always had the opportunity to look back and say that it was worth the trip. This year was especially meaningful, as I was wed to my fiancee Katharine on the 13th. Though Gen Con wasn't our honeymoon (we're not that dorky), we did have the chance to be serenaded by a Klingon and his Vulcan wife in honor of our union. There are few places in the world where such a thing could be experienced, and I'm already looking forward to next year. From: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0.../1525212&tid=10

http://www.guzer.com/videos/no_seat_belt.php

Your sig. doesn't work...

This is why I will not park at night at 24 hour super markets. http://ls2gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37811

One more! Here is the photo that Number 6 signed. (Scanned it in)

Martok and Number 6 Balandar and Number 6

I'll post some DDO movies in the downloads section soon. Please click refresh if there are any "temp" place-holder replies posted above in this thread.

There were some pretty sweet setups. I don't know what this is, but it's cool looking!

Banners, Posters, & T-Shirts, Oh My!!!

You cannot have pen & paper games without miniatures!!

Here are some people shots from Gen Con 2005. Very busy, even on Sunday!

Balandar and the Cylon. Notice the evil glowing red eyes!!.. (damn camera). Hudson took this picture (notice the heads being chopped off). I think he was aiming at a different part of her anatomy than her face... And here is the joker that took the Cylon picture. Here he is again, sharing love to all. Hudson was really cool. He gave me his DDO dice bag (they ran out). Martok and I bought him a killer bunny. Of course, Martok needs some "edumakashun" before he can play DDO. Martok just can't keep his hands in his pockets.

Watching it instead. Who needs sleep anyway.

I try to think different.

He doesn't like Harry Potter either.

I may have to record it tonight. I am sooo tired after spending all night with the goat.

http://forums.thehonorempire.net/My_new_goat-t8004.html

Iraq Enjoys Some of World's Cheapest Gas By THOMAS WAGNER, AP LONDON (Aug. 17) - Motorists struggling with high gas prices in the United States and Europe may be surprised to learn that consumers in Iraq pay as little as 5 cents a gallon, according to the International Monetary Fund's first assessment of the Iraqi economy in 25 years. Thanks to generous government subsidies on petroleum products -- which the IMF criticized as a threat to the country's fragile economy -- Iraq has some of the cheapest gas in the world. By contrast, Americans pay about $2.55 a gallon and Britons pay $6.24. Iraqis also pay much less for a gallon of regular gasoline than in nearby countries such as Iran (38 cents), Jordan ($1.89) and Syria ($1.74). Even the many Iraqis who pay higher, black-market prices at the pump often make money by smuggling gasoline into neighboring countries such as Turkey, according to the International Monetary Fund's 62-page report released Monday. Iraq's government hasn't been able to fulfill its promise to the IMF to slash the massive subsidies, given how much the country already is suffering from escalating violence by insurgents, high unemployment and inflation, and poor electricity, water and sewage services. Last month, the Yemeni government agreed to reverse its earlier decision to lift subsidies on oil products after a wave of riots and strikes swept Yemen's major cities. In 2004, gasoline subsidies alone cost the Iraqi government $3 billion, the IMF said. Therefore, the IMF said it was cutting its forecast for gross domestic product growth this year from 17 percent to 4 percent. In 2004, the Iraqi GDP was $25.5 billion. This year it is projected to reach $29.3 billion. The IMF said oil production was likely to reach only 2 million barrels a day over the year, down from its earlier estimate of 2.4 million barrels "because of the continuing sabotage of oil installations and the resulting halting of oil exports from the north." Before U.S.-led forces defeated Saddam Hussein, whose government also heavily subsidized gas prices for consumers, average annual oil production in Iraq was 2.5 million barrels per day. The IMF said the government was likely to run short of money in the second half of this year because of lower oil exports and a shortfall in revenue largely caused by the subsidies. Iraq's proven oil reserves, estimated at about 115 billion barrels, are the world's third largest. The potential development of the oil sector is considerable, given that a large portion of the country remains unexplored. That's why oil analysts closely watch Iraq's oil production and export figures to see if they will affect the world's skyrocketing oil prices, now hovering at about $66 a barrel. "Because of the tight situation of the oil market, any increase in Iraqi production will have a positive affect on the supply side," said Muhammad-Ali Zainy, a senior energy economist at the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies. Iraq's economy has benefited from today's oil prices. But widespread attacks by insurgents limit its oil exports. Also, the government doesn't have the money it needs to rehabilitate and upgrade an oil industry infrastructure that has fallen apart during two decades of wars, misuse by Saddam Hussein's government and international trade sanctions. Zainy said few changes are expected in Iraq's current oil exports of about 1.6 million barrels a day, mostly through its southern ports, which have suffered far fewer insurgent attacks than the main pipeline to Turkey in the north. "The problem is that the Iraqi economy is in a shambles and non-oil income is trivial, so the government is almost completely dependent on oil income and whatever the international community can contribute," Zainy said. Issam al-Chalabi, who served as Iraq's oil minister in the late 1980s, agreed. "It's doubtful the government will be able to do anything of significance regarding its oil market this year," al-Chalabi said in a telephone interview from Jordan, where he now works as an oil consultant. He said the insurgent attacks mean none of the world's major oil companies are willing to invest in the country. Al-Chalabi said these companies also don't want to sign significant contracts in a country that is currently drafting a new constitution that could affect the oil industry and that plans to elect a new national government later this year. "BP and Shell are not planning to go into Iraq any time soon. Until you get a new elected government and much better security, forget it," al-Chalabi said. From: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.ad...S00010000000001

*drool*

I tell ya, the world is coming to an end!!

http://forums.thehonorempire.net/Interview...tish-t7987.html

Location: 100 South Capitol Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46225 Gencon at Google Cost: Onsite One Day: $27 Sunday August 21st: 7am - 4pm (only until 2pm for registration). 1. Balandar will be there around 10-10:30 am, depending on parking. 2. Martok will be there around 10-10:30 am. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Parking Costs: http://www.indydt.com/parkingdatabase.html Attached maps from http://www.genconfans.com/. (Slow site for downloading). **** All times CST **** parking_basemap.pdf data_sunday.zip

It could be as early as October 21. I bet it'll be something like The Day After Tomorrow.

The next Pope may be the last by Hector Carreon La Voz de Aztlan "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. ... And she bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne." Description of "La Virgen de Guadalupe (Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas)" in Revelation 12:1 * * * 4 Ahau 3 Kankin December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0) End of the Great Cycle (Fin de los Tiempos) in the Mayan Long Calendar and the Popol Vuh Los Angeles, Alta California - April 4, 2005 - (ACN) The coming Vatican Conclave to select the next "Vicar of Christ" may be the last according to religious sources knowledgeable in Biblical Prophecy, in Roman Catholic Church history and in the Indigenous traditions of the Americas. Information synthesised from Revelation and the Gospels in the New Testament, from Daniel in the Old Testament and from the Mayan Popol Vuh points to a coming cataclysmic event and the beginning of a totally new Era for mankind. This cataclysmic event (Fin de los Tiempos) will occur, according to the Mayan Long Calendar, on December 21, 2012 when the Earth and Sun align with the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Biblical prophets as well as Catholic and other Christians scholars have for a long time written about the "End Times" and the second coming of Jesus Christ (Quetzalcoatl) to establish the New Jerusalem. What is not generally known is that many of the Old and New Testament Biblical prophecies of the "End Times" correlate amazingly with the religious beliefs of the Mayas and other Indigenous civilizations of the Western Hemisphere. These similarities are more apparent when one analyses the "End Times" account of St. John in the last chapter of the Bible called Revelation and the account of the "Fin de los Tiempos" in the Popol Vuh which is considered to be the Mayan (as well as the Mexica/Aztec) Bible. One of the best known Catholic prophets to predict that the Pope after John Paul II would be the last was Irishman Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair who is better known as simply St. Malachy. According to the prophecies of St. Malachy, who was born in 1094, the line of Pontiffs has come to an end. St. Malachy, canonized by by Pope Clement III on July 6, 1199, undertook to list in advance the proper succession of Roman pontiffs from Celestine II to "the end of the world". St. Malachy prophesied that there would be 112 Popes after Celestine II. John Paul II, who just died, is number 110. Pope number 111 would be the "False Prophet" mentioned in St. John's Revelation and who will deliver the Roman Catholic Church to Satan. Number 112 will NOT be a legitimate Pope. It will be the "Grand Anti-Pope" or the Anti-Christ who is also known as the "Abomination that Causes Desolation" mentioned in Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11 and Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14. The Prophecies of St. Malachy conclude thusly: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven hilled city (Rome) will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people". Among other Catholic prophets and scholars that have written on the end of the Roman Catholic Church and its Popes are Jesuit priests Malachi Martin and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Another scholar is Fr. John F. O'Connor. Fr. O'Connor has articulated a series of speeches, very much worth listening to as the College of Cardinals elect the next pope, that perfectly outlines the final onslaught on the Roman Catholic Church by "Judeo-Masonic Conspirators" that culminates in the "end of this world" as prophesied in the Bible. Among the most enlightening of Fr. John F. O'Connor's speeches on the subject is one titled "Reign of the False Prophet" that refers to the next Pope. Fr. Malachi Martin was an eminent theologian and expert in the Catholic Church who wrote that the apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church is a precondition for the end of time, as we presently know it, and for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Fr. Malachi Martin served in the Vatican from 1958 to 1964 where he was a close associate of Pope John XXIII. In 1990, Fr. Martin wrote, "The cultic acts of Satanic pedophilia in the Catholic Church are considered by professionals to be the culmination of the rites of 'The Enthronement of the Fallen Archangel Lucifer' in the Vatican". Fr. Martin believed that the Vatican had finally been, after centuries long efforts, infiltrated, at the highest levels, by Satanists in league with Zionists and what he called the “Universal Assembly” that consists of a Masonic group of Western plutocrats and the Illuminati. Fr. Malachi Martin wrote six years before the shameful pedophilia and homosexual scandal among the Catholic Clergy became widely known, "Suddenly it became unarguable that now during this papacy (1996), the Roman Catholic organization carried a permanent presence of clerics who worshipped Satan and liked it; of bishops and priests who sodomized boys and each other; of nuns who performed the “Black Rites” of Wicca, and who lived in lesbian relationships . . . every day, including Sundays and Holy Days, acts of heresy and blasphemy and outrage and indifference were committed and permitted at holy Altars by men who had been called to be priests. Sacrilegious actions and rites were not only performed on Christ’s Altars, but had the connivance or at least the tacit permission of certain Cardinals, archbishops, and bishops. . . ". Satanism, pedophilia and homosexuality now permeates every Catholic Parish and especially in the USA. Many a Bishop and Cardinal has either joined or has protected the "Luciferians" in their midst. The USA Catholic Church has now paid out billions of dollars to legally settle court cases involving child sexual abuse by sodomite priests. Tens of thousands of children have been raped at the altars and inside "confessional rooms". In the Boston Archdiocese alone 65 parishes had to close in order to raise the money necessary to pay court settlements resulting from the homosexual abuse of children by scores of perverted "Luciferian" sodomite Catholic priests. One case alone involved more than 500 child victims and a mandated court settlement of over $85 million dollars. Just before his death, that occurred under very suspicious circumstances, Fr. Martin said that soon after the installation of Pope Paul VI in 1963, Vatican Satanists clandestinely installed "Lucifer" in a secret ceremony called "The Enthronement of the Fallen Archangel Lucifer". The ceremony was conducted at the St. Paul’s Chapel located within the Vatican. Pope Paul VI later wrote that ‘the smoke of Satan has entered the Sanctuary". As the red robed Cardinals arrive in Rome to elect Pope John Paul II's successor, one can only wonder how many of these are Luciferians and who among them they will choose to be "The False Prophet" who will deceive and deliver many in the "Catholic flock" into the jaws of "The Beast". Fr. John F. O'Connor is another of the few within the Catholic clergy that has spoken out against the Luciferian Judeo-Masonic conspiracy to destroy the Roman Catholic Church from within. Still alive, he often speaks on the Last Days, The False Prophet and on The Anti-Christ. Fr. O'Connor speaks principally on Lucifer and how he has waged war against the "Kingdom of God" and the Catholic Church for 2,000 years and how his disciples through membership in Masonry, Freemasonry and the Illuminati devised a plan called "Alta Vendetta" that is designed to take control of the Papacy. Fr. O'Connor also spoke (prophesied?) about how these Luciferians would send missiles to destroy the U.S. (911) in the coming Third World War and about the Federal Reserve Bank and has questioned where the money goes that is paid for the interest on the USA national debt. He has also spoken extensively on how "The False Prophet" ( the next Pope) will deceive Catholics into worshiping the Anti-Christ. Fr. O'Connor says that Lucifer will even double-cross and fool nations and his own agents, dupes, stooges and lackeys. He has outlined the many things that Lucifer has already in place including the control of many Catholic seminaries and how he gives greater power to those who commit greater sins. Fr. John F. O'Connor says that every day the news media carries stories of homosexuals and lesbians attempting to change America through indoctrination, legislation, infiltration and intimidation. Fr. O'Connor begins his speeches by telling us that the signs that will precede the second coming of Christ will be identified by unprecedented wars, revolution, drought, famine, pestilence, plagues of the most hideous kinds, earthquakes, tsunamis, violence, death and especially crime and sin unparalleled in human history, and that Christ warned us that in those days sin and evil will abound in the world and that the love of truth will grow cold. In the mid-fifties, Pope Pius XII said that there was more sin being committed then than at any other time in human history, even before the Great Flood. This statement was made before today's rampant homosexuality and child abuse. This second coming of Christ is at the end of the world after the reign of the Anti-Christ, and if the end of the world is near, the reign of the Anti-Christ is even nearer ( not long after the election of this next Pope). Scripture tells us that the Anti-Christ will be accepted by the Talmudic Jews as their Messiah. The Talmudic Jews (mostly Kazhars) are "Lucifer's Chosen People" as opposed to the Torah Jews who are the ancient Hebrews and followers of Moses. According to St. John, author of Revelation, there is to be a final battle with Lucifer in a confrontation with a "Woman Clothed with the Sun and with the Moon under Feet" that perfectly fits the description of the "Santisima Virgen de Guadalupe, La Reina de Mexico y Emperatriz de las Americas (Tecuauhtlacuepeuh )" as she appeared to St. Juan Diego (Cuauhtlatoahtzin ) at Tepeyac. As we witness the election of the next Pope by the College of Cardinals in Rome, we should contemplate who the Luciferian Judeo-Masonic infiltrators may be. There is no doubt among enlighten people in the world and in the USA that there is a certain malignant force controlling the U.S. and that is casting its shadow across the world. La Voz de Aztlan proposes that this same sinister force or power is the same one responsible for the Crucifixion of the "True Messiah" Jesus Christ. It is the same force that emanated from the Pharisees over 2000 years ago. If Jesus Christ was ministering today, no doubt he would be crucified again! Who are these modern day Pharisees? They are of course the haters of God, haters of what is good and moral and most of all they are the haters of truth. They are the followers of the "Great Deceiver" and the greatest liar of them all . . . Lucifer. You can spot them easily by their actions which most of the time have no correlation to what they preach. They are those in high places who justify murderous international wars for profit with lies and deception. They are the international money lenders that "suck the life" of poor nations. They are those who profit from pornography on the Internet and sale of useless and many times dangerous and addictive drugs and pharmaceuticals. Today these modern day Pharisees are organized in groups like the Illuminati and Skull and Bones. The Illuminati and Freemasons were funded by the Jewish "Rothschild Banking Dynasty" for the sole purpose of undermining Christianity. Jesus Christ himself reviled the Pharisees as "hypocrites" and a "generation of vipers." Jesus accused the Pharisees of worshipping the devil. He said to the Pharisees "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." (John 8:44). This is the reason why today the Talmudic Jews promote the sodomite agenda, lesbianism and the removal of God from the Pledge of Allegiance. Their master plan to take over the world and enthrone Lucifer as their King is outlined in a diabolical document known as "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" and which was explained by the great USA automobile industrialist Henry Ford in his book titled, "The International Jew". Christians must be careful not to condemn all Jews for certain sinister activities that have brought so much suffering and misery to the world. There are essentially two types of Jews, "those who follow the Torah" and "those who follow the Luciferian Talmud". Babylonian Talmudic Pharisaism is paganism, pantheistic atheism, and a conglomeration of all the forms of idolatry concocted through the centuries. It is essentially pure Satanism. The Talmud is characterized by obscenity. It sets sets laws for the purpose of inventing circumventions and evasions and delights in sadistic cruelty. In reality it reverses most Biblical (Mosaic) moral teachings on theft, murder, sodomy, perjury, treatment of children, parents and teaches a hatred of Christ, Christians and every aspect of Christianity. Phariseeism is based on the Luciferian Talmud, which consists of the interpretations of so called sages during the Babylonian exile of the Jews that begin around 589 BC. Generally, the Talmudists contradict the spirit of Moses. They place the Talmud over the Torah and is one of the causes of antisemitism. The Talmudic Jews worship the god Mammon. Mammon is the god of "money", greed" and "usury" and one of the many manifestation of Lucifer. Lucifer was enthroned through a Black Mass inside the Vatican in 1963 by modern day Pharisees or Judeo-Masonic infiltrators according to Jesuit Priest Malachi Martin. Lucifer today waits in the defiled halls and chambers of the Vatican to preside over the Final Conclave that will elect the "False Prophet" who in turn will prepare the ground for the Anti-Christ. There are parallels to the above scenario in the Mayan Popol Vuh and in certain Indigenous religious beliefs. It seems that the "Fin de los Tiempos" as outlined in the Mayan Long Calendar and the "End Times" outlined in Revelation of the Bible are converging on a certain date. This date is December 21, 2012 when, according to the Mayas, time as we know it ends and mankind enters into a totally different Era of elevated consciousness. Will enlightened human beings enter the "New Jerusalem" on December 21, 2012 as promised in the New Testament? Current world events, the state of moral decadence and decay in the world and especially in the USA, increasing earthquakes and tempestuous weather changes as well as horrific pestilences such as AIDS and Mad Cow Disease certainly qualify as the preconditions that the New Testament sets for the end to occur. The year 2012 is less than 7 years away. Seven years is a reasonable time for the "False Prophet" in the Vatican to prepare the ground for the Anti-Christ. The Mayas were a mysterious and much advanced people who were superb mathematicians and astronomers. They devised one of the most accurate calendars known to man, far more accurate than the modern Gregorian calendar. Their calendar was created through extremely accurate observations of the sun, the planets, the stars and our own Milky Way galaxy. They knew, through unknown methods, the exact location of the center of the Milky Way and attached great significance to the birth and death of stars at this center. They also possessed extensive knowledge concerning the "Precession of the Equinoxes" and their periodicity which was necessary to create an accurate calendar and other time keeping devices. The Mayas viewed time differently than western man. Their magnificent pyramids were perfectly aligned to the sun and were constructed in such a way that during the equinoxes, the setting sun casts a shadow of a serpent (Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl) descending on the northern steps of the pyramid. This effect could only be obtained by precise architectural and astronomical measurements and is most evident at the pyramid in Chichenitza. The Maya's astronomical knowledge was inherited from even an older and more mysterious civilization at Teotihuacan which contains the famous Pyramid of the Sun and of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Sun is perfectly aligned with the star cluster called the Pleiades which the Egyptians also took into account in building their pyramids at Giza. There is a connection between the ancient religious beliefs of the Sumerians, the Egyptians and the Mayas, especially as they relate to the creation of the universe, of the human race and of the future. The Mayas approached "prophecy" by deeply studying the periodicity of cycles, especially astronomical ones. They were also deeply spiritual and very aware of the role that human consciousness plays in extracting information from nature. They knew that ingesting certain plants, religiously and with reverence, would open the doors of perception and lift the veil that keeps mankind from seeing certain realities and communicating with God. This knowledge must explain how they were able to ascertain what will happen on October 21, 2012. Incredibly, they knew, over a thousand years ago, that on this date there will be an astronomical alignment of our sun and the center of the Milky Way. This impending alignment of the sun at that very point, according to Mayan calculations, culminates at the winter solstice of December 21, 2012. Just recently astronomers have discovered that at this precise point there exists an immense "Black Hole" that is radiating high-energy gamma rays. The Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics states that the observations were carried out using the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) which is an array of four telescopes, in Namibia, Africa. "The Galactic Centre harbours a number of potential gamma-ray sources, including a supermassive black hole, remnants of supernova explosions and possibly an accumulation of exotic 'dark matter' particles" the journal states. The Mayas had a glyph that represented a "black hole" in the center of our galaxy. How they were able to know this, no one knows. The Mayas tied their philosophy entirely on what they observed in the heavens. They thought that the center of our galaxy was a "Cosmic Mother Womb" and that it gave birth to our world. They believed that our world went through cycles of birth, death and rebirth. October 21, 2012 will end the cycle and our world will end by fire but will be reborn in a new, different and more evolved form, possibly in the form of a "New Jerusalem" that is described in Revelation. This will be the beginning of a new sun or the "Sixth Sun" according to the Mexicas (Aztecs). Pope John Paul II will be buried on Friday. Soon after the burial, the College of Cardinals will convene in what is believed to be the "Last Conclave". Which Cardinal will become the "False Prophet" that will usher in the Anti-Christ? We will know in about 20 days or less after which we will be in for a tumultuous seven years! From http://www.aztlan.net/the_last_pope.htm